Vehicles with a passenger compartment able to seat six, seven or even eight persons, without these vehicles being considered by international regulations as public transportation vehicles, are now very commonly used.
Thus, there has been an increasing number of vehicles known in the trade under the names of "Minibus", "Espace", "Voyager", etc. In these vehicles three parallel rows of seats are transversely positioned. The back row and the intermediate row both receive three passengers, while the front row consists of two separate front seats, the first one for one passenger, the second one for the driver.
Generally, these vehicles are equipped when used for business, with a telephone and a facsimile unit, and sometimes can even receive television broadcastings on screens placed conveniently beneath the vehicle roof. It is thus possible to prepare or to continue a meeting between, for example, an airport and a meeting place.
Therefore, there has been a need to provide measures for rotating 180.degree. the front passenger seat and the intermediate seats, so as to be able to organize a working session between six or seven persons.
Such vehicles can also be used as family vehicles, and it is sometimes desirable for a mother to be able to talk comfortably with her children and the persons accompanying them, so as to make a long trip more enjoyable.
Until now, the pivoting seat or seats have been mounted on simple rotary bases. These rotary bases have not been provided with safety devices, so that they can pivot independently of the position of the respective seat, resulting in difficulties during rotation of the seat. Actually, the respective seat to be rotated could abut against other seats or other parts of the vehicle passenger compartment.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a rotary base allowing the rotation of a seat only when the seat is in a particular position in which the unlatching of a mechanism that ensures the locking of the rotary base is possible.